Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted an invitation to take part in a G20 summit later this year in Indonesia, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the current G20 chair, said on Friday.

Frank Zappa was not a man who had many heroes. He was wary of the ways of the world and had the wherewithal to view his peers for what they were rather than celebrating them like idols and sinking into the past of their output. Zappa was all about pioneering the future and he felt hero-worship was a hurdle that got in the way of that. Nevertheless, he was only human, and some tracks seem so heaven-sent that it would be a sin not to revere the ground that their sound resides over. This is the case with the defining...

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed in testimony during the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard $100 million defamation trial that it had ghost-written the Washington Post op-ed allegedly accusing Depp of domestic abuse, reportedly timing it for the release of “Aquaman” in which she played a role. The ACLU also stated that Heard had only donated $1.3 million to their coffers after promising in 2016 to fork over $3.5 million from her divorce settlement with Depp, stating that the actress was having financial difficulties. The organization also contends that Heard’s ex, South African billionaire Elon Musk donated $500,000 of...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden has failed to integrate the vast numbers of immigrants it has taken in over the past two decades, leading to parallel societies and gang violence, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Thursday, as she launched a series of initiatives to combat organised crime. Many Swedes were shocked earlier this month after violent riots left more than 100 police injured. The violence erupted after a Swedish-Danish politician burned the Quran at a rally and sought to hold more in several immigrant-dominated neighborhoods. Andersson blamed criminals and said both Islamism and right-wing extremism had been allowed to fester...

VLADIMIR Putin appeared confused and out of breath as he wheezed his way through his latest speech, threatening the West with nuclear weapons. The Russian president seemed to struggle to catch his breath and paused several times during the address to politicians, stumbling over his words and looking exhausted. At one stage, he appears breathless and stuttering, while on two other occasions, he seems to take quick gasps for air.

A Belgian journalist deemed “too white” to interview far-left African-American essayist Angela Davis, required police protection after receiving serious threats from activists. Journalist Safia Kessas interviewed Angela Davis earlier this week at the National Theatre in Brussels and had to be placed under police protection during the event due to the number of threats she had received as activists claimed she was “too white” to interview the black writer. Activists were allegedly angry that Kessas was chosen to interview Davis because, despite being part Algerian in her background, she was not black herself. “As Black and queer activists, we strongly...

U.S. stocks sunk Friday with the Nasdaq Composite notching its worst month since 2008, as Amazon became the latest victim in April’s technology-led sell-off. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.2% to 12,334.64, weighed down by Amazon’s post-earnings plunge. The S&P 500 retreated by 3.6% to 4,131.93. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed about 940 points, or 2.8%, to 32,977.21.

Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate, said in an interview with NPR that “there is no argument” among pediatricians and adolescent-specialist doctors regarding “the value and the importance of gender-affirming care.” “Gender-affirming care” includes sex reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers, hormone therapy and social affirmation, according to an FAQ from Levine’s own agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Levine’s comments dismissing concerns over “gender-affirming care” came during an interview with NPR ahead of her appearance at a health conference in Texas, a state that has taken...

An Airbnb renter is facing charges after allegedly running around mostly nude and assaulting a disabled man over 65 years of age. Stephanie Joanne Lewis, 47, was charged with felony lewd or lascivious exhibition in the presence of an elderly and disabled person, assault on a person 65 years of age or older, and resisting an officer without violence. Lewis overstayed her Airbnb rental in the upstairs area of the victim’s home, according to an arrest report which states she is a narcotics user with a history of violent, erratic behavior and keeps “a collection of butcher knives” in her...

On Friday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough's urgent electoral advice to Democrats was to make voters "very afraid" of the "crazy" Republicans. He and his supporting cast deployed a plethora of related epithets, calling Republicans: "dupes, knuckleheads, weirdos, freaks, loony, kooks, out of their blanking minds, crazy as hell!" But—as on display in the screencap and throughout the video clip—it was the Morning Joe crew itself that appeared badly unglued. There was uncontrollable laughter, wild gestures, and bellowing. The madcap moments were capped by a boastful Joe Scarborough fantasizing about debating Republicans, claiming it would be the "funnest" debate because he...

The Department of National Defence says an investigation is underway after four cadets died in an incident involving a vehicle at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont. The incident happened shortly after 2 a.m. Friday on Point Frederick, a peninsula at Canadian Forces Base Kingston that sits between Kingston Harbour and Navy Bay on the St. Lawrence River. Investigators were seen Friday examining the road and shoreline in boats and on foot. Frontenac Paramedics said four patients were treated at the scene but none of them were taken to hospital. The Royal Military College (RMC) is located on the...

To say that the United States’ foreign policy situation has shifted dramatically in the past couple of years would be an understatement. While the world is largely united in its opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, America’s individual relationships with some countries have grown increasingly rocky even as former rivals in other parts of the world seem to be on the mend. For one example, look no further than the recent rapprochement between Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Just this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Saudi Arabia for the first time in five years, taking meetings with both Crown...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) wrote to House sergeant-at-arms William Walker on Wednesday about how to improve safety at the Capitol building, citing Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-N.C.) recent incident at a North Carolina airport. Hoyer, who has written several letters to Walker, asked the House sergeant-at-arms about his thoughts on improving Capitol security and if the Capitol Complex should be a gun-free zone apart from law enforcement.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) revealed the FBI performed as many as 3.4 million searches of U.S. data that had been previously collected by the National Security Agency. ... The ODNI report says the FBI conducted roughly 3.39 million searches "using the identity of a presumed U.S. person" from Dec. 1, 2020, to Nov. 30, 2021. However, the number of searches for the previous 12-month period was merely [sic] 1.3 million. ... The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA...which garnered fame amid reports that former President Donald Trump had been illegally spied on during his 2016 presidential...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday ordering a central Indiana middle school to allow a transgender student to have access to the boys restroom. The order issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt requires John R. Wooden Middle School to allow the seventh-grader identified only as A.C. to have access to the restroom while litigation continues. Pratt cited Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. “The overwhelming majority of federal courts — including the...

President Joe Biden’s new disinformation chief Nina Jankowicz used TikTok to imitate her male trolls. In a video created on January 25, Jankowicz dressed up and imitated two of her online male critics. Jankowicz made her TikTok video account private after it was featured on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show Thursday night, but some videos still exist on her Twitter account. “Women should not be involved in government. They can not be trusted,” she said as she wore a hat and looked into the camera, speaking in a male tone. “The real reason she is angry is no Chads would...

Elon Musk on Thursday posted a graphic indicating liberals have moved so far to the left as ‘woke’ progressives that it’s left people in the middle inadvertently on the right side of the political spectrum through no fault of their own. The image shows a set of stick figures and lines representing the years 2008, 2012, and 2021. Each timeframe has three stick figures – one to the left representing a liberal, one to the right representing a conservative, and one in the middle labeled ‘me.’ In each, the liberal stick figure shifts – nay, runs – further to the...

Teaching has been my passion for the past 12 years. I am proud to call myself an educator. For the first two years, I taught first grade. It prepared me to effectively teach kindergarten while also focusing on kids’ social and emotional development. I have enjoyed working in Florida schools over the past six years, as has my partner, Jeramiah, who is also an educator. However, recently there has been a major cause for concern. I have been stricken with fear over how Florida’s new law limiting discussions of LGBTQ+ discussions in school will affect me as a person and...

Under pressure applied by both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the European Union is working to expand online censorship to an extreme Orwellian level, as well as strictly regulate speech during what authorities deem to be times of crisis (we always seem to be in the middle of a “crisis”), and remove online anonymity by forcing the public to have a digital identity.But these plans aren’t unique to the EU. They are also currently being rolled out in the UK and Africa, proving Governments worldwide are working in lockstep to bring in a digital identity and social credit system right...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced late Thursday that a person in Colorado has tested positive for an H5 bird flu virus — the first such recorded infection in the United States. The CDC did not reveal the neuraminidase subtype of the virus — the N portion of an influenza A virus’ name. The country is currently experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in both wild birds and in commercial poultry flocks. The man, described by Colorado health officials as being younger than 40 years old, experienced only fatigue; he is now in isolation and being...